Conflicted Interests
Armored Core VI sat incredibly high on my wishlist. Dave the Diver was an off-the-cuff purchase-on-a-whim type thing. So when the two came together, there should really only have been one possible outcome.
The brutal massacre of any desire to play Dave the Diver.
Armored Core VI came out on Friday. I got home after a rather long day of work, sat down with great eagerness and glee… Booted in… Started playing… And…!
…Started wanting to play more Dave the Diver in very short order.
Dangit.
Honestly though, a large part of that was… Well, I just wasn’t very good. And hardly anyone likes things they’re not good at. Like my wife and I have been telling our youngest boy a lot of late though… ‘How do you get better? Practice!’
But pffffft.
As much as that was certainly a big part of it, Dave the Diver is just a legitimately fun game, too. It’s another take on Moonlighter or Recettear with a dash of Subnautica thrown in to give it something a little unique.
But having had the weekend to relax a little more, I was feeling ready to crack my knuckles and get back to Armored Core, and it was glorious.
On Friday when I was playing, it was only a couple of steps above button mashing. The main thing throwing me off was that dodge flipped buttons from FromSoft’s usual B/Circle to X/Square instead.
But coming back in today, the mappings landed and I started to feel a lot more comfortable.
I’ve found a build I like using a set of inverted legs that allow for powerful jumps and dodges, enough so that I brought back the plasma sword weapon from the starter build as it goes a lot better in a setup like this.
I have vertical strike missile launchers on both shoulders, and then purely for weight consideration reasons, I have a light-ish machine gun in my right hand.
This build I sort of lucked into being very strong against the tank-looking-boss in the middle screenshot above. Being able to leap aside from it’s charges or to get air quickly and rain down rockets from above worked exceptionally well. I think a heavier build — let alone a full on tank/tread build — would likely have struggled a bit more.
I’m sure there are difficulty spikes and challenges to come, but simply having gained some familiarity with the controls is enough for me for now.
…The siren call of Dave the Diver still hasn’t entirely subsided though, I must say. Dangit.
This was posted during Blaugust 2023, the annual blogging event hosted by Belghast. Blaugust is an event aiming to welcome new blogger blood into the fold and revitalise those who’ve been at it a little longer.
The Blaugust Discord is still available to join in, year-round!
